Source: ‘Rogue’ States back Zim at UN inquiry – DailyNews Live
Gift Phiri 24 March 2017
HARARE – Activist group United Nations Watch (UNW) has expressed disgust
over the hailing of Zimbabwe’s human rights record by “rogue” States –
Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.
While the three countries, with controversial governance records, praised
Zimbabwe’s “promotion and protection of human rights” at the United
Nations (UN) Human Rights Council meeting last weekend, UNW accuses the
southern African nation’s government of partisan application of the law
and targeting opposition members and human rights activists with
abduction, arrest and torture.
The Council, which reviews all UN members’ human rights records every four
years, convened in Geneva, Switzerland, where sharply opposing views of
Zimbabwe’s rights record were exposed.
UNW executive director Hillel Neuer said Zimbabwe should cease using
harassment, detention and arrest as tactics to silence human rights
activists.
He said country’s security forces and judiciary must also stop being
partisan.
Zimbabwe’s special envoy to the Geneva meeting, vice president Emmerson
Mnangagwa, said President Robert Mugabe’s government was totally committed
to the protection and respect of human rights, as enshrined in the
country’s Constitution.
He said some of the accusations levelled against Zimbabwe were “based on
misunderstandings and prejudices.”
Zimbabwe’s legal framework prohibits torture and the infliction of cruel,
inhuman or degrading punishment, Mnangagwa said, adding that a tropical
storm which claimed lives and destroyed crops and infrastructure could
hobble government’s efforts to ensure access to some rights by citizens.
He also blamed “illegal” Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe for
stifling government efforts at defending and promoting some rights.
Kim Jong-un’s North Korea asked about the impact of Western sanctions on
Zimbabwe’s enjoyment of human rights.
Violent land seizures, along with allegations of vote-rigging and rights
abuses – all denied by Mugabe’s administration – led to the imposition of
sanctions on Zimbabwe by Western powers.
Dictator Bashar al-Assad’s Syria – where a civil war has been raging for
six years – welcomed the commitment by Zimbabwe to accord priority to the
development of human rights, while Vladimir Putin’s Russia noted the
improvement the African nation’s legislative framework.
The Islamic Republic of Iran noted Zimbabwe’s adoption of a new
Constitution in 2013.
Turkey appreciated the legislative improvements here in protecting human
rights.
Sudan commended Harare for its positive engagement with this council’s
universal periodic review.
Zimbabwe’s independent human rights advocates did not support the
country’s rosy human rights report.
Echoing concerns voiced by local rights groups, Neuer protested that the
council was turning into an “abuser solidarity” group and instead of human
rights scrutiny, no less than 70 percent of the country statements offered
praise for the Zimbabwe government.
” . . . the truth is the opposite . . . victims of human rights abuse
object to the adoption of this (Zimbabwe) report,” he said.
“Human rights advocates object to this report filled with praise, because
Zimbabwe restricts freedoms of expression, press, assembly, association,
and movement.”
“The government evicts citizens, invades farms and private businesses and
properties, and demolishes informal marketplaces. The government
interferes with the judiciary; and fails to investigate or prosecute state
security or Zanu PF supporters responsible for violence.”
Neuer added: ” . . . President (UN Human Rights Council president Joaquin
Alexander Maza Martelli), for all of these reasons, let me be absolutely
clear: human rights advocates and the victims of Zimbabwe’s human rights
abuse object to the adoption of this report.”
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